This past weekend (February 26, 2022), SCCBB and his partner in crime, Eleanor, visited MadeWest’s newish Ventura Pier location for the first time. Other key members of their Covid Social Pod visit regularly, and the pictures they post to their Instagram feeds are always stunning. Santa Cruz Island is in the backdrop to this Pacific Ocean background, featuring a glass of MadeWest Pale in the foreground.
The tasting menu for the afternoon included Standard, Pale, Hazy IPA, and Sixth Anniversary New England-style hazy Double IPA, which clocks in at 8% ABV and features Strata, Citra, and El Dorado hops. All were refined and worthy*, but, as with our visit to the brewery’s original Donlon location six years ago, after MadeWest had just opened, the star of the show was the brewery’s Prospect Porter [photo not included].
What a long way MadeWest has come in just six years! We now regularly see their beers on tap around Southern California, and on the shelves of our local stores, including Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Something we hope to be able to delve into deeper is: how do you get Stone as a distributor, and does that help get your beer into the most popular places?
*”worthy” is a term used by our NorCal brewer/ epicure Ted Andersen (not the same person as Socal Craft Beer’s own BrewHead Ted) to signal that a beer has reached a certain level of distinction.
So Cal Craft Beer Blog 